Cockroaches are one of the hardiest insects that have survived on this planet for millions of
years. They thrive in unhygienic environments, are able to survive without food for up to 30 …

Lifespan varies greatly across the tree of life. Of the various explanations for this
phenomenon, those that involve trade-offs between reproduction and longevity have gained …

The exceptional longevity of social insect queens despite their lifelong high fecundity
remains poorly understood in ageing biology. To gain insights into the mechanisms that …

A eusocial insect colony represents a complex biological entity that must ensure degrees of
perennity once it reaches maturity (production of dispersing imagoes over many successive …

Social isolation negatively affects health, induces detrimental behaviors, and shortens
lifespan in social species. Little is known about the mechanisms underpinning these effects …

Individual lifespans vary tremendously between and also within species, but the proximate
and ultimate causes of different ageing speeds are still not well understood. Sociality …

In cooperative systems exhibiting division of labor, such as microbial communities,
multicellular organisms, and social insect colonies, individual units share costs and benefits …

Highlights•Primary queen is the ancestral termite phenotype with multiple eusocial
adaptations.•Queen development is controlled by environmental and (epi) genetic …

Background Most insects are relatively short-lived, with a maximum lifespan of a few weeks,
like the aging model organism, the fruit-fly Drosophila melanogaster. By contrast, the queens …

The mechanisms that underpin aging are still elusive. In this study, we suggest that the
ability of mitochondria to oxidize different substrates, which is known as metabolic flexibility …